The Vaccines, ‘No Hope’

By
nmeMay 28, 2012

Justin Young and co's big comeback track

Coming a meager year and two months after their first album came out, what is, by definition, The Vaccines’ comeback song hardly feels like a comeback at all. In fact, they pretty much haven’t stopped touring since the demo of ‘If You Wanna’ made the internet melt a little bit. This band are not about ‘starving their audience’ for maximum marketing impact. They’re about loading up, setting the crosshairs, firing out their next bullet then reloading ASAP.

This is a good thing. And anyway, ‘No Hope’, the first song from their second album, doesn’t need a metaphorical drum roll to herald it. It’s got a pretty damn urgent real one of its own as its introduction, one that recalls Arctic Monkeys’ ‘Brianstorm’, in fact. It soon gives way to the most Strokesy thing they’ve done since, well, since Albert Hammond Jr produced their b-side ‘Tiger Blood’ last year.

Justin Young’s testicles seem to be getting a touch bigger too – while the vocals on the first album were smeared with a slight rub of reverb haze, here he’s springwater-clear in his everyman delivery. “I don’t care about anyone else, when I haven’t got my own life figured out,” he sings, the confidence with which the words are barked out undermining the lyrics somewhat.

It’s not quite going to land straight into The Vaccines’ top drawer alongside ‘If You Wanna’, ‘Wreckin’ Bar’ and ‘Wetsuit’. But if ‘No Hope’ is an early indication of whether they can follow-up their stonking debut without pausing to let the ringing in their ears from actually recording it die down, then we’re not worried for a second. And in a couple more seconds, we’re likely to hear the sound of their next reload.